The Headlines - How Kennedy Could ‘Go Wild on Health,’ and The Onion’s Infowars Bid

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Plus, a dramatic rise in U.S. obesity. Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Trump Picks R.F.K. Jr. to Be Head of Health and Human Services Dept., by Sheryl Gay StolbergTrump Takes a Victory Lap Before a Friendly Audience at Mar-a-Lago, by Michael GoldElon Musk Met With Iran’s U.N. Ambassador, Iranian Officials Say, by Farnaz FassihiThree-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese, by Nina AgrawalThe Onion Wins Bid to Buy Infowars, Alex Jones’s Site, Out of Bankruptcy, by Benjamin Mullin and Elizabeth WilliamsonThe Curious Fight Between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, by Emmanuel Morgan

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, November 15th. Here's what we're covering. I've been in Washington for nearly 30 years covering both public health and politics. And I don't think we've ever seen a figure quite like Robert F. Kennedy nominated for a high ranking health position. My colleague Cheryl Gay Stolberg is covering Donald Trump's latest cabinet pick, Robert

F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer with no formal training in medicine or public health, but he's crafted his public image sharing unorthodox views on the topics. He's been angling for this position since he ended his own presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. In exchange, Trump promised he would let Kennedy, quote, go wild on health. Sherrill says some of what Kennedy wants to do is relatively standard, like focusing on the effects of ultra-processed foods. But he's also a prominent vaccine skeptic.

He's spread false claims about them, including the long-debunked theory that they cause autism. He's spoken out against fluoride in drinking water, which the CDC recommends to prevent tooth decay. And he's contradicted other advice from public health experts. If he becomes health secretary, Kennedy would have control over a sprawling department with 80,000 employees and broad control over Americans' daily life. Everything from regulating food and medicine to whether Medicare will pay for your drugs and hospital treatments.

And because of this sweeping control and because of his unorthodox views, his nomination is generating a lot of alarm. Kennedy has told the FDA to preserve your records and pack your bags. He said he wants to fire 600 people at the National Institutes of Health. He wants to cut the NIH budget and reduce its focus on infectious disease. In recent memory, at least, we haven't had a secretary who's come in wanting to rip up the very agencies that are responsible for enhancing the public health. That is new and that is sending shockwaves of fear throughout the medical and public

health community in this country. In Florida last night, when they built Mar-a-Lago many years ago, the roaring 20s, it was the roaring 20s and we're hotter right now than they ever were in the roaring 20s, I believe. We're going to be a lot hotter. Trump took a victory lap with a celebratory gala at his private club filled with donors and Republican lawmakers. In a 20-minute speech, he praised some of his recent administration picks, including Kennedy. I guess if you like health and if you like people that live a long time, it's the most

important position, RFK Jr. And he made another pick. Trump announced on stage that he wants North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to be Secretary of the Interior, the department that oversees public lands and coastal waters. Burgum will lead the Trump administration's plans to open that land and water to oil and gas drilling. He has deep ties to fossil fuel companies. As governor, he almost never uses the phrase climate change and has declined to explain how he views the issue or how the country should respond to the crisis.

Separate from his cabinet picks, Trump's also been elevating his personal legal team to new positions in his administration. He said he'd name Todd Blanche, his defense attorney, to be deputy attorney general and D. John Sauer to be solicitor general. Sauer represented Trump in front of the Supreme Court in the presidential immunity case. One of Trump's biggest backers, Elon Musk, has quickly established himself as one of the most influential figures in Trump's transition. He's been sitting in on nearly every job interview as Trump builds out his new administration, and he seems to be getting involved in foreign policy. Last week, Trump handed the phone to Musk during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,

and the Times has learned that this week, Musk met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations for over an hour. That meeting is particularly notable because of Iran's bad blood with Trump. American officials say that Iran tried to assassinate Trump earlier this year in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general when Trump was in office. Iranian officials describe the meeting with Musk as, quote, positive, and that they talked about how to diffuse tensions between the two countries. The U.S. and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since the 70s, so the meeting with Musk was a kind of workaround, since he's not an American official, at least for the time being.

A major new study has found that nearly three out of every four Americans are overweight or obese. It's a sharp increase from a few decades ago. In 1990, just over half of Americans fell into those categories. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal The Lancet, say the country is facing an epidemic of obesity and that they're especially worried about how quickly the rate of childhood obesity has been climbing. A third of American kids are now overweight or obese. Both conditions can lead to serious

health problems, ranging from diabetes to heart disease, and can shorten a person's lifespan. Researchers say that the surge is driven by factors that are often discussed, like exercise habits and a lack of access to quality food, but also by genetics and other causes that aren't fully understood yet. They also say there is no magic bullet to reverse the trend. On an individual level, people can consider changing their lifestyle or taking medication or pursuing surgery. But they say there also needs to be structural changes like taxes on sugary drinks or stricter regulations on marketing unhealthy foods.

The Onion could be about to own Infowars. No, that is not one of the site's fake headlines. Yesterday, the satirical newspaper said it won a bankruptcy auction to buy the website founded by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The deal, which is now being reviewed by a judge, is the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle between Jones and the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. In 2022, they won a $1.4 billion defamation suit against Jones for spreading baseless claims that the school shooting was a hoax. Ever since, they've been trying to collect that penalty and undercut his media empire. Jones has filed for bankruptcy, and

as part of that, Infowars went up for auction. The Onion said the families gave it the green light to go ahead with the purchase. It says it'll relaunch Infowars as a parody of itself, mocking outlandish internet personalities like Jones, while also running sponsored content from the nonprofit Every Town for Gun Safety that was founded after the Sandy Hook attack. For many of the Sandy Hook families, this is not only a way to call for stricter gun laws and to sabotage the infamous Infowars brand, it's also just a chance to irritate Jones and get back at the man himself. And finally.

Introducing first to the scales, fighting out of the blue corner, he's the problem child, Jake L. Gile Paul. Tonight a truly bizarre face off is going down in Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, champion Mike Tyson will fight social media star turned boxer Jake Paul. Tyson's 58, Paul is 27. The whole thing is going to be streamed on Netflix, part of the platform's aggressive push into streaming live sporting events. They don't want to just bring you rom-coms and documentaries anymore.

They want in on games and matches too. Millions of people are expected to watch. As for why Paul wants to risk going up against Tyson's fists or why Tyson wants to risk his reputation potentially being beaten on a very public stage. Paul said a vision of fighting Tyson came to him while doing the psychedelic ayahuasca. Tyson said he got the idea for his comeback

while hallucinating after smoking toad venom. So the whole night could be very inspired. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily. So you're in a fighting mood? Oh, absolutely. I think right now this is a pivotal moment in American history and the next year or two will determine what happens in this country for decades in my view.

Michael Barbaro talks with Senator Bernie Sanders about why he thinks Trump won the White House and what Democrats need to do to win back the American people. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell.

Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Doug Mills, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schuman. The headlines will be back on Monday.